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Shepherds Of The South: An Introduction To The Life And Service Of Military Chaplains In The Confederacy, Micah Velarde

Liberty University Research Week

The experience of chaplains in the Confederate States of America was very different from that of the chaplains in the Union. Unlike the Union, their establishment was very rushed and not detailed. Facets such as pay, benefits, requirements, and expectations all spelled major differences between the two sides’ chaplains. Additionally, other Confederate officers did not have much respect for them. Despite being overlooked, misunderstood, and underdeveloped, the Confederate chaplains were able to rise into a position of unparalleled influence. Whether it was doing their primary duties, such as a ministry, or superseding those and putting themselves in harm’s way on …

A Gripping Controversy: Examining Hoplite Spear Grip Positions In Art, Practice, And Context, Ethan Pierce

Liberty University Research Week

The Greek Hoplite was the principal warrior of Archaic and Classical period Greece. The citizen militiaman was outfitted primarily with a large shield and spear, which he used in a dense Phalanx formation to combat foes for nearly three centuries. In the absence of written records detailing how individual hoplites fought, historians have turned to the artistic record. Archaic and Classical age vase paintings, depicting hoplites in combat, have served as the basis for nearly all reconstructions of hoplite warfare. The majority of these vase paintings depict hoplites holding their spears overhead in an overhand grip position. This grip position, …

The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, And The Burden Of Power, Thomas F. Lynch Iii

Joint Force Quarterly

This review explores Robert D. Kaplan’s The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power, a reflective and philosophical departure from his earlier geographically focused works. Drawing from decades of war reporting and inspired by thinkers from ancient Greece to modern Europe, Kaplan argues that effective leadership—especially in matters of war and foreign policy—requires a “tragic sensibility.” He contends that decisions about the use of force often involve choosing between lesser evils, and must be guided by humility, historical awareness, and a clear understanding of unintended consequences. Kaplan critiques recent U.S. military interventions and praises President George H.W. …

War In Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, And The Return Of A Fractured World; The War For Ukraine: Strategy And Adaptation Under Fire; A Call To Action: Lessons From Ukraine For The Future Force, Frank Hoffman

Joint Force Quarterly

This review examines three pivotal books—War in Ukraine, The War for Ukraine, and A Call to Action—that collectively offer a comprehensive analysis of Ukraine’s ongoing conflict and its broader military and strategic implications. Drawing parallels to the U.S. Army’s transformation post-Yom Kippur War, the review highlights Ukraine’s decentralized command model and adaptive warfare as crucial advantages over Russia’s rigid, artillery-centric doctrine. Contributions from military experts, including Lieutenant Colonel Jay Bradley and Colonel Jamon Junius, delve into Ukraine’s effective use of mission command and modernized targeting systems, despite technological limitations and residual Soviet influence. Each book serves …

Winning Without Fighting: Irregular Warfare And Strategic Competition In The 21st Century, Joseph J. Collins

Joint Force Quarterly

Winning Without Fighting offers a timely and compelling framework for strategic competition in the modern era, especially against authoritarian states like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Written by four seasoned scholar-practitioners, the book redefines irregular warfare as a comprehensive, non-violent competition for influence and legitimacy. Emphasizing tools like information, diplomacy, economics, and national resilience, the authors argue that the United States must evolve its strategic culture—rooted in binary war/peace thinking—toward one that embraces continuous, multi-domain competition. Drawing on Cold War lessons, they advocate for renewed investments in statecraft capabilities such as regional expertise and alliance coordination. The book concludes …

Movement And Maneuver At Leyte, October 1944, Michael M. Trimble, Douglas W. Burkman, Michael L. Simmons

Joint Force Quarterly

This article examines the enduring principles of warfare—particularly movement and maneuver—through a detailed analysis of Operation King II, the U.S. amphibious assault on Leyte in October 1944, which marked the beginning of the Philippines' liberation during World War II. The study situates the operation within the broader context of global war, emphasizing the evolution of U.S. and Japanese strategies in the Pacific theater. It highlights how coordinated, multidomain operations—across land, sea, and air—enabled U.S. forces to seize key terrain and deliver a decisive blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Despite challenges stemming from divided …

Toward A 21st-Century Medical Offset Strategy, George A. Barbee, Benjamin J. Ingram

Joint Force Quarterly

In an era of multidomain threats and global instability, the U.S. military must develop a 21st-century medical offset strategy to maintain combat effectiveness and strategic superiority. This article proposes medical offset strategies—far-forward intervention, technological innovation, and international partnerships—as a transformative framework to achieve medical overmatch. These strategies aim to save lives, enhance combat power, and sustain military operations amid high-intensity, large-scale combat scenarios. Far-forward intervention ensures timely critical care on the battlefield; technological innovation integrates AI, autonomous systems, and new treatments to extend reach and efficiency; and allied coordination enhances interoperability and collective medical capacity. The article underscores that inaction …

Developing Alternative Manning Strategies To Maintain The Combat Effectiveness Of The Joint Force, Shawn M. Cook, Andrew Hall, Todd Spanton

Joint Force Quarterly

The U.S. military is confronting a recruitment crisis stemming from a declining pool of eligible and willing recruits, largely due to deteriorating physical and mental fitness across the population and waning societal confidence in the military. This article explores strategic alternatives to address the shortfall in military manpower. It evaluates three core approaches: enhancing the fitness and mental health of potential recruits, adapting recruitment standards to align with current population capabilities, and restructuring to a smaller but technologically augmented force. The authors argue that while improving population fitness is costly and yields uncertain long-term results, and adapting standards risks reduced …

Obstacles To Integrating Deterrence, Jeffrey A. Larsen, James J. Wirtz

Joint Force Quarterly

This article calls for a strategic shift in how the United States addresses today’s security threats—ranging from peer nuclear adversaries to disruptive emerging technologies. Emphasizing that integrated deterrence must extend beyond the military, the authors advocate for a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach. They argue that success hinges on developing a national strategy, designating senior leadership, fostering interagency and allied collaboration, and engaging the public through education. There are considerable challenges, but they are not insurmountable.

A New Step In China’S Military Reform, Joel Wuthnow

Joint Force Quarterly

Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow in NDU’s Institute of National Strategic Studies, discusses the current state of military reform in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In April 2024, Xi Jinping launched a sweeping military reorganization aimed at enhancing the PLA's ability to achieve information dominance and conduct integrated joint operations. The reform dismantled the Strategic Support Force, introduced a new Information Support Force (ISF), and placed key support elements under Xi’s direct control—marking the PLA’s most significant structural change in five years. Motivated in part by lessons from Russia’s failures in Ukraine, the changes aim to boost PLA readiness …

Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 117, 2nd Quarter 2025, National Defense University Press

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint Force Quarterly 117 centers on the urgent call for bold, visionary leadership within the U.S. Joint Force. Highlighting challenges such as integrated deterrence, alternative manning strategies, and China’s military reforms, this issue provides strategic insights for future readiness. It features forward-leaning proposals on air defense, military housing, and medical innovation, alongside historical case studies from Okinawa and Leyte. Book reviews and expert commentary further enrich the discourse on contemporary military leadership and strategy.

Intifada Tatreez, Jamilla Hashem

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

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The Bright Sword And Its Sharpness: Swords, Symbolism, And Medievalism In The Lord Of The Rings, Gavin S. Davis

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Swords are paradoxical objects that hold in tension both aesthetic beauty and repulsion, and how one goes about resolving this paradox has much to say about one’s personal ideology. This paper investigates Tolkien’s representation of swords in The Lord of the Rings as ideologically loaded objects with shifting symbolic significance between the cultures of Rohan, Gondor, and Hobbits. These changes in significance produce three kinds of medievalism, shaped by differences in their interaction the cultural imagination of the medieval sword. Through the Rohirrim, Tolkien provides a medievalism of spectacle—an idealized world of valor to be marveled at from the safe …

Jane Goodall's Integration Of Science And Spirituality, Estella Elpers

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

As our final project for my ENG 198 class, we were asked to write a paper that related to the courses theme of "Faith and Reason." I decided to choose the prompt of reporting on a scientist who maintained a spiritual connection in their life. After some initial research, I decided to focus on Jane Goodall and how her scientific discoveries were impacted by her religion.

Fighting On The American Color Line: How Black Masculinity And Identity Was Negotiated Through Boxing In The Jim Crow Era, Cameron Reid Ambroise-Sanscartier

Madison Historical Review

The early 20th century saw the meteoric rise of boxing as a lucrative business opportunity for both promoters and fighters alike and acted as one of the few business ventures that was accessible for both White and Black Americans. In the Reconstruction period, many former slaves or children of slaves found themselves stuck in a perpetual cycle of poverty performing menial labour not far removed from their previous lives as slaves; boxing provided a rare alternative for these men. Often dubbed “meal ticket fighters” some men fought merely to survive while others stood out as exceptions within this violent and …

Mhr Volume Xxii Full Issue

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

“If, In That Strife, ‘T Were Given To See / The Glory Of Thermopylae”: Connections To The Classics In The Alamo And The Texas Revolution, Austin M. Pritchett

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This historical research paper argues that connections to classical tradition were made in the rhetoric and symbolism of the Texas Revolution as a means of creating a national identity as Texans and as a way of garnering support from the Unites States for their cause.

Having established the background of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836, the famous Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece, I bring forth examples from primary sources of important figures using comparisons to classical history. The classical connections made in those writings were used to justify their …

Horizonte Fronterizo: The Vitality Of Community And Contemporary San Diego-Tijuana Border Art, Ruben L. Loza

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

This research dedicates attention to different examples of music and visual art that encompass contemporary San Diego-Tijuana border-integrated art. By employing a participant-observer approach with the music component and conducting plática-based interviews with all involved artists, this work underlines the vitality of the artworks’ manipulation of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and community as a driving force in the elaboration and growing influence of these projects and pieces. By analyzing how these works act as vehicles for response, light is also cast on greater matters that lie beyond the border zone: propagation of fear, anti-immigrant sentiment, and misinformed anxieties.

How Politicians Use Public Relations Strategies To Manipulate The Political Opinions Of Young People, Kylie O’Neil

Honors Theses

With the rise of the internet and social media, politicians have begun to utilize evolving public relations (PR) strategies in the online sphere to sway the political opinions of young people who can or will one day vote. This thesis will analyze these public relations strategies and how they are intended to manipulate the people consuming the content and answer the question of how politicians use public relations strategies to manipulate the political opinions of young people. The data will be collected by monitoring the news as well as social media profiles of multiple politicians on both sides of the …

Anchoring ‘Neo-Hahnian Outdoor Education’ In The Cold War Era: A History Of Character Building In The Outward Bound Movement, Jayson Seaman

Faculty Publications

The invitation to comment on a foundational early article from the JAEOL provided a welcome opportunity to engage with Andrew Brookes’s trilogy of ‘neo-Hahnian outdoor education’ critiques (Brookes, 2003a, 2003b, 2023). In this article, I approach outdoor education’s character building ideology by using archival and secondary sources to situate its evolution in four periods corresponding with major geopolitical and cultural movements: (1) 1941–1945 when Outward Bound (OB) was established; (2) 1946–1952 when Hahn exported OB from his perch at Gordonstoun; (3) 1953–1967 when OB expanded to the U.S. and replicated globally, and (4) 1968–1976 when human potentialism replaced muscular Christianity …

The Shorthorn: May 19, 1942

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: April 7, 1942

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: March 31, 1942

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: January 13, 1942

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Wwii Propaganda In Shaping Women's Roles, Robert Baker-Nicholas

Liberty University Research Week

This study offers a comparative qualitative analysis of World War II propaganda and how it influenced women’s labor in the United States and Canada. It investigates how each country’s cultural identity and political climate shaped propaganda messaging aimed at women and how that messaging affected public attitudes toward their roles. Using a wide range of primary sources—including propaganda posters, government studies, pamphlets, films, radio broadcasts, speeches, and oral narratives—this research highlights the stark differences in how the U.S. and Canada mobilized women during the war. In the United States, propaganda promoted female empowerment through iconic campaigns like Rosie the Riveter, …

The Shorthorn: May 27, 1941

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: April 22, 1941

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: March 18, 1941

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: January 14, 1941

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: November 26, 1940

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1940s

No abstract provided.